Ware v. State

62 S.W.3d 344, 2001 WL 1548896
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 10, 2002
Docket2-00-428-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by66 cases

This text of 62 S.W.3d 344 (Ware v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ware v. State, 62 S.W.3d 344, 2001 WL 1548896 (Tex. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

TERRIE LIVINGSTON, Justice.

INTRODUCTION

Appellant Richard C. Ware, III was indicted for one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 and one count of indecency with a child by contact. Appellant pled not guilty to both charges and the jury returned a guilty verdict on both counts. With a nunc pro tunc judgment, the trial court sentenced appellant to 75 years’ confinement on count one and ten years’ confinement on count two. Appellant presents five points for review on *348 appeal. Appellant contends that: (1) the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support his conviction; (2) the trial court abused its discretion in submitting the jury charge with an erroneous instruction concerning extraneous offense evidence; (3) the trial court erred in resen-tencing appellant after he had filed his notice of appeal and that this, in effect, granted appellant’s motion for new trial; and (4) the trial court abused its discretion in admitting hearsay testimony. We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

BACKGROUND

S.W., the victim, is appellant’s daughter. Soon after S.W. was born in 1990, appellant and S.W.’s mother, Joanne P., broke up. Appellant had little contact with S.W. until the summer of 1995, when she began to visit him on weekends at his apartment in Fort Worth, Texas, where he lived with his fiancee, Brandi W. Although S.W. was originally excited about these visits, she eventually became reluctant, even frightened. S.W.’s half-sister, H.P., testified at trial that S.W. “begged” her mother not to go and cried about having to visit her father. S.W. testified that during these visits, which occurred between August and December of 1995, appellant sexually assaulted her at least twice. H.P. testified that S.W. complained that her “tee-tee” hurt after she stopped visiting appellant.

In 1998, H.P. and S.W. were watching a movie called “Liar, Liar” on television about a girl who was molested by her father. H.P. asked S.W. if “anybody ha[d] ever done that to her.” S.W. responded that “[appellant] did that to me.” H.P. told their grandmother, Marilyn Hubbard.

On November 3, 1998, Hubbard took S.W. to see Dr. Ann Sims, a gynecologist who worked as a medical consultant on child sexual assault cases at the Advocacy Center in Waco, Texas. Dr. Sims testified that:

[S.W.] stated that [appellant], her mom’s ex-husband ... “Did s-e-w with me.” She said it happened ... “More than once.” She said that it happened when she was in kindergarten. She said ... “He touched my private parts, both front and back. His front private part touched me. His private part was in, not on me. His front went in my back.” She said, “It hurt, was hard and hot, and she felt it go in, and it hurt.” And she said, “He told me not to tell,” and she was afraid she would get in trouble.

Dr. Sims also testified that S.W. told her that appellant sexually assaulted her five to ten times.

Dr. Sims testified that in most cases in which the child does not make an immediate outcry, a physical exam is normal eighty-five percent of the time because of the resiliency of children’s bodies. Dr. Sims noted that her physical examination of S.W. revealed that her vaginal opening was “quite large” and “gaping” which was abnormal for a child of S.W.’s weight and age. Dr. Sims further stated that the rate at which S.W.’s anus dilated when she was placed in a certain position was “suspicious for anal penetration.”

Dr. Sims testified that due to the nature of sexual abuse cases, she always “erred on the conservative side” concerning her conclusions. Her conclusions regarding S.W.’s examination were “nonspecific,” but she also testified that the examination was consistent with S.W.’s story.

DISCUSSION

Legal and Factual Sufficiency

In reviewing the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, we view all the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict. Cardenas v. *349 State, 30 S.W.3d 384, 389-90 (Tex.Crim.App.2000). The critical inquiry is whether, after so viewing the evidence, any rational jury could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. McDuff v. State, 939 S.W.2d 607, 614 (Tex.Crim.App.), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 844, 118 S.Ct. 125, 139 L.Ed.2d 75 (1997). This standard gives full play to the responsibility of the jury to resolve conflicts in the testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Our duty is not to re-weigh the evidence from reading a cold record but to act as a due process safeguard ensuring only the rationality of the jury. Williams v. State, 937 S.W.2d 479, 483 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). The verdict may not be overturned unless it is irrational or unsupported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Matson v. State, 819 S.W.2d 839, 846 (Tex.Crim.App.1991).

In reviewing the factual sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, we are to view all the evidence in a neutral light, favoring neither party. Johnson v. State, 23 S.W.3d 1, 7 (Tex.Crim.App.2000). Evidence is factually insufficient if it is so weak as to be clearly wrong and manifestly unjust or the adverse finding is against the great weight and preponderance of the available evidence. Id. at 11. Therefore, we must determine whether a neutral review of all the evidence, both for and against the finding, demonstrates that the proof of guilt is so obviously weak as to undermine confidence in the verdict, or the proof of guilt, although adequate if taken alone, is greatly outweighed by contrary proof. Id. In performing this review, we are to give due deference to the jury’s determinations. Id. at 8-9. Consequently, we may find the evidence factually insufficient only where necessary to prevent manifest injustice. Id. at 9,12; Cain v. State, 958 S.W.2d 404, 407 (Tex.Crim.App.1997).

The only true factual dispute in this case was whether appellant actually committed the acts as S.W. claims he did. In resolving all inferences in favor of the verdict, we will assume that the jury believed S.W. and did not believe appellant. S.W.’s description of what appellant did to her is more than adequate to establish the elements of the offenses in sections 21.11 and 22.021 of the penal code. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§ 21.11(a)(1), 22.021(a)(l)(B)(i), (iii) (Vernon Supp.2002). We conclude that the evidence presented to the jury in this case was legally sufficient.

In urging that the evidence in this case was factually insufficient, appellant attacks S.W.’s credibility and points out that her testimony was uncorroborated. First, appellant contends that because the medical exam was “normal,” S.W.’s testimony was not corroborated. The record does not support this assertion. Although Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
62 S.W.3d 344, 2001 WL 1548896, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ware-v-state-texapp-2002.